1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for transporting painting panels, and more particularly, to a painting carrier that accommodates a variety of painting panels of differing sizes and dimensions.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Many artists enjoy painting outdoor scenes. This usually requires that the painter bring a portable easel, one or more painting panels, paints, brushes, an easel, and other supplies to a remote area having scenery of interest. As used herein, the term painting panels is intended to refer to a variety of panels on which artists create paintings, including canvas panels, linen panels, plain aluminum panels, oil painting paper mounted on a backing-board, plain wood panels, and the like. When the painting session is complete, or as the day ends, the painter desires to store and protect the painted panels. The paint takes time to dry and harden, and it is important to protect the painted panels from moisture, as well as from physical contact that would smear the paint. These same considerations apply even when an artist is painting indoors, e.g., at an art class; it is still necessary for the artist to transport the paintings between home and the art class, often before such paintings are entirely dry.
Painting carriers have been commercially available for quite some time for such purpose. The present applicant has previously developed lightweight wet painting carriers sold under the trademark “RayMar Art” by RayMar Art of Phoenix, Ariz. for carrying and protecting painting panels. Divided tracks, or channels, are provided along each side of the carrier, and a wet panel can be slid inside each track. The tracks support each panel by its edges and prevent one panel from contacting another panel; the tracks also prevent the frontmost panel from contacting the front of the carrier, and prevent the rearmost panel from contacting the rear of the carrier. A wet panel painting carrier is also available from SourceTek of Scottsdale, Ariz. under the trade designation “GatorBox”. Another type of wet panel carrier is commercially available from Judson's Art Outfitters of LaPorte, Colorado under the trade designation “Guerilla Painter”.
Painting panels are available in a large variety of sizes. For example, standard painting panel sizes include:
5 inch by 7 inch
6 inch by 8 inch
8 inch by 10 inch
9 inch by 12 inch
10 inch by 12 inch
11 inch by 14 inch
12 inch by 16 inch
16 inch by 20 inch
18 inch by 24 inch.
Often artists will order custom panels cut in square shapes, e.g., 12 inch by 12 inch.
All wet painting carriers known to the applicant are made initially to accommodate panels of a fixed width (or length, if the painting is turned sideways). Each painting carrier typically has opposing tracks extending along the inner sidewalls of the carrier, and the spacing between such opposing tracks is fixed for a given carrier. It is sometimes possible to simultaneously carry two non-identical painting panels in the same carrier by rotating one of the panels ninety-degrees relative to the other. For example, when using a carrier having an internal width of approximately ten inches, an artist may be able to carry an 8-inch by 10-inch panel, as well as a 10-inch by 12-inch panel, as by inserting each panel into the carrier so that its ten-inch dimension spans the width of the carrier. Clearly, this technique would not work if an artist wanted to carry both an 8-inch by 10-inch panel and a 9-inch by 12-inch panel at the same time, within the same carrier.
In view of the relatively large number of painting panel sizes, suppliers of wet painting carriers must typically offer a number of different sized wet panel carriers for their customers. In turn, artists who paint on varying sized painting panels often need to purchase several different wet sized carriers to transport and protect different-sized painting panels. This is not only expensive for artists, but it is also inconvenient, as an artist is often required to bring two or three different wet painting carriers along with them for a given painting session.
Some suppliers of wet panel carriers offer adapters, or inserts, to effectively reduce the width of the tracks already provided in a wet panel carrier. For example, RayMar Art of Phoenix, Ariz., offers an adapter designed to reduce the width of tracks originally provided in its wet panel carriers by one inch. Use of a single adapter with one side wall of the carrier reduces the widths of all the tracks by one inch; use of two adapters, one for each side wall of the carrier, reduces the widths of all the tracks by two inches. Another supplier, SourceTek, apparently offers a conversion accessory, or “Divider Kit”, that includes removable inserts that slide into the original tracks to reduce the effective width of the tracks. However, such conversion kits merely change the original fixed width spacing between all of the opposing tracks from one distance to a smaller distance. None of the available wet painting carriers known to applicant simultaneously accommodate two or more painting panels of different sizes, and lacking at least one dimension in common, at the same time.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a painting carrier to protect and transport two or more painting panels of different sizes at the same time, even when such painting panels do not share at least one dimension in common.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a painting carrier which is easy and inexpensive to construct.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a painting carrier that can accommodate a wide variety of painting panel sizes all at the same time.
These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art as the description of the present invention proceeds.